_____________________________________ ZMAGAZINE JULY 31, 1987 ISSUE #64 _____________________________________ ZMAGAZINE INFORMATION NETWORK (201) 968-8148 300/1200 BAUD ACCESSIBLE THROUGH PC PURSUIT _____________________________________ Publisher/Editor: Ron Kovacs Assistant Publishers:Ken Kirchner, Susan Perry, Rich Decowski Zmag Correspondents: Leo Newman Mike Brown _____________________________________ Xx ZMAG INDEX 64 _____________________________________ <*> Zmag Update <*> New Zmag Column <*> Surge Protection <*> Zmag Newswire <*> Zmag Special Report (Computer Security Act) <*> Zmag Technical Assistance <*> The Wizard -Oasis Support- <*> Zmag Software Review _____________________________________ Xx ZMAG UPDATE _____________________________________ Here's what's happening at Zmag: In the weeks ahead look for our format to change. New columnist's have joined Zmag, Mike Brown, Leo Newman, Bill Whitton, Calamity Jane, and a few others still deciding. I am trying to get people to write articles for Zmag to make this a more diversified publication. Sit back and watch Zmag in the weeks ahead for more updates. This week, Mike Brown debuts his User Group column. Look for more from Mike next week. Mr. Goodprobe is coming to Zmag!! Who is this you ask?? He will be Zmag's Hardware expert. Ask your questions and look for fact filled replies about your hardware. Mods, specifications, upgrade and repair information coming soon. If you would like to get information now, about any of the items listed above, you can call Midtown TV in Ohio at: (216) 633-0997. Tell them you read this in Zmag!! Otherwise, Good 'Ol Mr G wont know who you are!! The copyright problem with Issue 62 on CompuServe has still not been cleared up. As soon as the details are in, I will let you know. Issue 63 finally made it into access on CIS!! Wenesday July 29th!! Only 6 days past the original upload date. I must apologize for this, Perhaps we should locate another outlet for the latest issues?? Thanks for supporting Zmag!! _____________________________________ Xx NEW ZMAG COLUMN ...User Group Focus... _____________________________________ By: ZMAG Correspondent Mike Brown Let me take a moment to say hello to the readers out there; a while back Ron and I were in CHAT on the ZMag Information Network and Ron lamented that he needed someone to help coordinate and edit the user group reports that were coming in from all over. Well, being the kind of a guy that I am, I was easily talked into giving it a try. It may take some time doing this feature before I develop a format that will be consistent, so please bear with me. As the User Group Focus -evolves-. I would prefer that if you wish to submit material from your user group, upload it to my BBS; The Balloon Works (419) 289-8392. The reason for this is that Ron's system is long distance for me and I promised myself that I would try to cut down on these $180/month phone bills I have been getting lately! If you can't upload it, send the information to me at: 268 E. Fourth St. Box 32 Ashland, OH 44805. This month's edition of the User Group Report focuses on an up-and- coming group serving the Cleveland Ohio area, The Atari Peekers of Lakewood. The Peekers were started over six years ago by Claudette Tischler because -There was a huge need in the area for support, It seemed like the stores were selling computer systems as fast as they could get them, but tha was as far as the support went-. One of the dealers in the area that was also an authorized service center, B&G Electronics, felt the same way, and offered a great deal of assistance in organizing and promoting TAP. B&G's biggest contribution to TAP been providing duplicating services for the club newsletter at no cost. B&G also actively participates by offering discounts to club members, and by supplying demo equipment and software for the meetings. The Peekers are not only a large, but active group. It is not uncommon to have several members per monthly meeting stand up and give presentations on original software that they have written or have discovered in the public domain. For a while there, it seemed like everyone was doing POKEY music, lately several excellent presentations have concerned the flood of new languages for the 8-bits. The Peekers are fortunate to have commercially published programmers as well as educators as active members. The ST owners are not forgotten, there are several demonstrations of the latest in ST titles at each meeting. A large public domain library is currently maintained for both the 8-bit and the ST machines. Disks can be checked out for no cost overnite upon presenting a TAP membership card. They are considering changing the newsletter format to include all articles on disk along with public domain software and graphics displays. Something unique that TAP is experimenting with is a magazine, book and newsletter library. Currently there are a handful of popular titles that can be checked out by members at no cost. As most user groups do these days, TAP offers a BBS system (216 228-7335 300/1200) that is open to the public and has special SIGs and Message bases for the exclusive use of the membership. The TAP BBS is currently run on an 8-bit system using one of the first ICD MIO devices. They depend on a rather Rube Goldberg appearing Hard Disk System and BBS Express! software to keep things running smoothly. Currently there are separate download sections for the 8-bits and the ST as well as a technical message base where callers can find help and guidance when they get into bad situations. There is also a group in the same area that operates out of Case Western Reserve University. They tend to be a bit more large-system, and programming oriented. There is considerable interchange between the two groups, with many people belonging to both groups. If you are a resident of the northern Ohio area, I would encourage you to contact the Peekers or stop by one of their meetings. The meetings are held on the second Tuesday of each month at 7:00 pm at the Lakewood Center on Aging, 16022 Madison Ave., Lakewood, OH. Their mailing address is: The Atari Peekers Of Lakewood 2160 Eldred Lakewood, Ohio 44107 Club Officers: President D. Terry Stiglic Vice President Jim Haynes Treasurer Paul Banasik Corr. Secretary Chuck Gies Rept. Secretary David Butera 8-Bit Libr. Dave LaForm ST Libr. George J. Neff Sr. Newsletter Ed. Jim Haynes Membership Fees: First Year Initiation Fee: $13 Yearly membership: $12 Your comments and opinions on this feature are invited!! _____________________________________ Xx SURGE PROTECTION _____________________________________ Copyright (C) 1987 by Garry Jones DO-IT-YOUSELF SURGE PROTECTION FOR YOUR COMPUTER When setting up a computer system, one piece of equipment which might get overlooked is a surge protector. The purpose of a surge protector is to protect equipment from voltage spikes and surges caused by lightning strikes on power lines (c'mon, it never rains is Southern California, does it?), electrical equipment turning on and off (you didn't really plug your computer into the same circuit as your refrigerator, did you?), the crummy wiring in your apartment that your landlords won't fix because they're too cheap, and just plain lousy performance by your friendly local Edison Company. A surge protector works by clamping the voltage and preventing it from rising beyond 130 volts when a sudden increase occurs. To do this, a surge protector uses a device called a metal oxide varistor, or MOV for short. Of course, you want to know if they wear out, and when they do, how to tell. MOVs do have a finite life, depending on the number and severity of surges they're exposed to. When they fail, they typically create a short which will pop a circuit breaker if one is included in the circuit, immediately shutting off the power and saving the equipment. Buying a surge protector is something of a problem, since not all surge protectors are created equal. Good ones are fairly expensive (there's plenty of expensive junk out there, too); how do you tell the good from the bad, and what do you do for cash after you spent the last of it on some superwhizbang software for your new computer? Good news for you clever hacker types who can tell a hot soldering iron when you pick it up (by the wrong end): Make your own surge protector. It's easy, it's chep, and best of all, it might even work. For the rest of you who haven't developed opposable thumbs yet, watch the ground for pennies, steal candy from babies and sell it to bigger babies, see a loan shark, and read PC (Can you say, -PC?- Sure. I knew you could. It does mean IBM, but your tongue didn't dry up and fall out of your mouth, did it?) Magazine's product tests and take their advice. Anyway, on to the project. You'll need a power strip (make sure you get the kind you can disassemble with a screwdriver instead of a hacksaw), three metal oxide varistors (General Electric part no. V130LA20A (which means 130 volts 20 amps) or Radio Shack catalog no. 276-568B), some rosin core solder (DO NOT USE ACID CORE SOLDER OR FLUX: it will corrode the solder joints in time, ruining them), some miscellaneous tools, like Xacto knives, alligator clips, wire cutters, etc., and a soldering iron. Three hands would be nice, but you can probably manage with two. Most of us do. Take the back off the power strip and look inside. It probably looks like the drawing included in this archive. If it doesn't, don't worry. If it has outlets, wires (three of them?), and a cord, it'll work. Notice the three wires inside: they're probably black, green, and white. White is the hot wire, green the ground, and black the common. Now, strip some insulation off the wires as shown in the illustration. Take one varistor and solder one of its' wire legs to the white wire, and the other leg to the green wire as shown. Fasten an alligator clip to the leg being soldered between the solder joint and the varistor to prevent heat damage to the varistor while soldering. Do the same thing with the second varistor, except it should be soldered to the green wire and the black wire. Solder the third varistor to the black wire and the white wire. Clean the solder joints with a rag dipped in a little alcohol, and examine the joints. There should be a smooth shiny flow of solder between the wire leg of the varistor and the copper wire in the power strip. If the joint is dull, lumpy, or flawed in appearance, resolder it. When all the joints look good, reassemble the power strip. Sit back. Relax. You're done now. Wasn't that easy? Can you say, -Easy?- Sure. I knew you could. -Garry Jones- Compuserve: 72030,273 GENIE: GXRAY _____________________________________ Xx ZMAG NEWSWIRE _____________________________________ Responding to requests from large schools for volume discounts, Mindscape is offering the educational software industry's largest site- licensing plan, which lets a school district make a specified number of copies of the disks and buy lab packs at discount prices. While site licensing is widely used -- and debated -- among corporate users, Mindscape's action serves another major purposes: It is the first major foray into combatting illegal copying. Mindscape will make 55 titles available for the plan, including Keyboard Cadet, Tonk in the Land of Buddy Bots, The Halley Project: A Mission in our Solar System and Vocabulary Challenge. _____________________________________ This week's charging of nine youths in Pennsylvania in an alleged computer cracker ring may lead to further arrests in up to seven other states. A six-week investigation of alleged computer intrusion and credit card fraud culminated with the arrests of the nine, all students at Mount Lebanon Junior-Senior High School, ages 14 to 17. Local and federal authorities accuse the Mount Lebanon nine -- eight boys and one girl, unidentified in press accounts because they are minors -- of feloniously using home computers to raid the files of a credit card authorization center on the West Coast and obtain lists of card numbers and expiration dates. Police say the teens ordered thousands of dollars in merchandise, from clothes to skateboards. The nine also are accused of making long- distance telephone calls with stolen access codes and making phone hookups between their computers and systems in banks, businesses and government agencies. Investigators told the wire service they found evidence of one conference call involving 10 computer operators, one of them in France. Computer vandals from across the country apparently are responsible for some $38,800 worth of unauthorized telephone calls charged to a Des Moines, Iowa, law firm's account. A spokesman for the firm of Davis, Hockenberg, Wine, Brown, Koehn and Shors told The Associated Press he took a call from several Texas youngsters who said they got the firm's 700 number, used to set up conference calls, from a computer bulletin board system. The BBS has been traced to New Jersey, he said. Now the firm has added a piece of equipment to make it possible for employees to call from outside the office into the system using a secret number for billing. _____________________________________ New York authorities said they have confiscated the computers of three alleged crackers accused of breaking into systems operated by telephone companies, financial institutions and credit bureaus across the country. The three juveniles -- two boys in Brooklyn and another in Bronxville -- may be part of the same so-called -network- of crackers revealed earlier this week with the arrests of nine youths in Mount Lebanon, Pa. Investigators have confiscated computer systems, hundreds of diskettes, manuals and printouts that filled 21 boxes from the three youths. The telephone records showed the three made calls to banks, credit bureaus, insurance companies, universities and other large computer systems. The US Secret Service is said to be conducting investigations with local authorities in as many as seven states in connection with the ring. _____________________________________ Disk makers at Seagate Technology say they will open a research facility in Boulder, Colo., adding they chose that region for its large pool of experienced engineers. According to The Associated Press, the Scotts Valley, Calif., -based firm initially will hire about a dozen people to work at the Boulder County facility. However, Seagate said the company is looking for an existing facility of at least 10,000 square feet with possibilities for expansion. _____________________________________ Xx ZMAG SPECIAL REPORT ...Computer Security Act... _____________________________________ Even with the Reagan administration's backing, the House Of Representatives' Computer Security Act of 1987 (HR 145) must still dodge National Security Agency (NSA) opposition, which could affect the outcome when the Senate considers the bill this month. Awaiting its fate, the measure now sits in the Senate. Although the Senate does not currently have companion legislation to match the House, it could either eventually propose its own bill, make some adjustments to the House bill or adopt the House bill in its entirety. -Right now, the House bill is being held at the desk,- said Ann Harkins, chief counsel for the Senate Committee on technology and the law. The holdup has given the NSA an opportunity to influence the Senate legislation and industry sources said that the NSA is indeed talking to Senate leaders. The NSA declined comment on the whole subject. -I assume the NSA will fight it all the way, going through the Senate (to argue its case),- said Donald Peyton, director of government relations for the Information Industry Association (IIA) in Washington D.C. -But based on what we know the bill has a good chance of going through the Senate as is.- The NSA has a vested interest in the bill, which places the National Bureau of Standards (NBS) in charge of computer security standards for -sensitive but unclassified- data in the federal government. Although the NSA and the Defense Department will remain in charge of Classified data, industry sources said that in the eyes of defense- minded officials, the bill still leaves too much information at the fingertips of the public. -NSA believes that it should control all of the (sensitive but unclassified) information,- said one information provider. Neither was Jack Simpson, President of Mead Data Central Inc. of Dayton, Ohio, sure that the Computer Security Act would smooth ruffled defense establishment feathers. -Its a temporary victory but nothing has been resolved (yet),- he said. The Defense department started studying data flow in early 1986, when the Air Force dispatched its AFMAG (Air force Management Advisory Group) to check into private industry database services. It was then that Dialog received a visit from AFMAG. Dialog was AFMAG's first stop and all the firm had to provide was information that was already publicly available. -They knew little about on-line data and asked us which databases were available,- said Bob Simons, company council for Dialog Information Services Inc. -We gave them a copy of our catalog, and explained what we have and how its obtained. It was a pleasant meeting.- For some other database companies, a visit from Uncle Sam was not so pleasant. Mead Data met AFMAG, FBI and the NSA representatives on various occasions. At that time, Simpson said, the NSA was -most interested in patents and Nexis- information availability. -They wanted to know how our system worked, who our customers were, and if we could monitor (customer access) and if we could stop (some customers) from accessing some data,- Simpson explained. According to Simpson, these visits as well as visits to other database companies such as CompuServe; EIC Intelligence in N.Y., Chemical Abstract, Columbus, Ohio; and Digital Information Group, Stamford Conn., were all part of a plan to implement restrictions on data availability. Hence the National Telecommunications Information Systems and Security (NTISS) Policy Directive No. 2 issued by former national security adviser Adm. John Poindexter in late 1986 Mead Data's federal guests weren't happy with its National Technical Information Service (NTIS) database, which comes from Department of Commerce public-domain information. As it was, Mead's NTIS offering was not faring well commercially, so the company deleted it from its database in February of this year. -We hoped that would settle this whole issue,- Simpson added. Opponents of the bill argue the -puzzle pieces- theory, where foreign intelligence or domestic hackers could take bits of publicly available data and pull together strategic information that as a sum of its parts could be considered classified. _____________________________________ Xx ZMAG TECHNICAL ASSISTANCE ...SG10 Printer Driver _____________________________________ After 2 years of frustration and many dollars spent on -custom- printer drivers, I think I have a solution. Below is a printer driver that I have been using with great success to solve many of the Star Gemini - AtariWriter+ problems. It may give you some ideas to help you build one that will suit your own needs. UNDERLINE DRIFT =============== Most of my word processor print outs require underlining in NLQ. If you have tried this with inverse video underline command you will have a problem with what is called underline -drift-. The words and underline -drift- down as the printer does half spacing. Since I seldom have need for superscript or subscript, I have eliminated the type font macros for these and substituted direct codes for underline on and underline off (AW+ [controls G8 and G9 are what I use]. My printer driver allows for the use of inverse video when in draft mode. To underline in NLQ I use the G8 to begin underline and G9 to end underline. NO DRIFT!! Many times I will creat my document using inverse for rough drafts and then when I am ready for final print out go back and visually key off the inverse video, insert the G8 and G9 codes there and -undo- the inverse video using [control] U. You will also find that the G8 and G9 codes will give you a -solid- underline (underlining the spaces between words as well). TURNING OFF NLQ AND MIXING FONTS ================================ My printer driver allows some degree of flexibility to change fonts using the -G- codes. You will note that all Font type commands begin with 27 66 5. This is the SG10 code to turn off NLQ. If you are in NLQ and want to change to italics with double strike you may do so with G5 and G7 command. If you look at the G1 (pica) commands you will see the commands to turn off all the other font styles. It is important to remember that you MUST -pass through- G1 to move from all typestyles except NLQ or you might get some funny looking print outs. In effect G1 will -undo- everything (except underline) and put you back in draft mode. If you have need for subscript and superscript AND NLQ underlining, you may need to make modifications to this program. This canbe done by substituting sub and superscript for perhaps Elite and condenced fonts. If you do this be sure to also substitute the -turn off commands- in the G1 (pica) codes. It would be a good Idea to keep a print out of which G codes you are using forwhat on hand. It may also be necessary to build more than one driver if your documents vary in format. Hope this is of some help to all the SG10 users. CODES TO ENTER FOR EDITOR PROMPTS: ================================== Initalize every line blank Line feed & CR 155 Underline off blank Underline on blank Backspace 8 Elongate off 27,87,0 Elongate on 27,87,1 Bold off 27,70 Bold on 27,69 Up 1/2 line blank Down 1/2 line blank Down 1/2 line and CR blank Return w/o line feed 155 Font Type Codes ========================= 1 Pica 27 66 5 27 53 27 72 27 112 0 2 Condensed 27 66 5 27 66 3 3 Proportiional 27 66 5 27 112 1 4 NLQ 27 66 4 5 Italics 27 66 5 27 52 6 Elite 27 66 5 27 66 2 7 Double Strike 27 66 5 27 71 8 Underline on 27 45 1 9 Underline off 27 45 0 _____________________________________ Xx THE WIZARD ...Oasis BBS Support... _____________________________________ We return this week with a couple of questions and possible problems for SysOps who run the Oasis BBS. Understand from my end when a SysOp leaves me a message and says, -my board crashed, help!- It sort of leaves me grasping at straws to find out what his problem is. This past week I have been going thru everything I could to get a SysOp to tell me where his board 'crashed' so I could tell him what his problem was. After many messages back and forth I was finally able to get him to tell me where and what the user was doing whe the system locked up on him. Ah ha! Some information is extremely helpfull! His problem was the BBS would lock up whenever a user tried to save e-mail on his system. I almost knew without asking him what his problem was and that there was a very simple cure for it. The SysOp was using a P:R Connection on his system, and the simple cure for his problem was to use the PRC.SYS file instead of the standard RS232.COM in his batch file. This cured his lock up problem, and now he is happy. The reason I mentioned this problem is to let you folks know that when you write or call someone to complain about a problem you are having with any thing, software or hardware, let them know who, what, when and where the problem occurs. It can save you many hours of problems and of course the person you contacted for support a lot of frustration in trying to help. The second problem that came up was a SysOp wanted to let me know he had discovered a 'bug' in the bbs program. He had noticed that a few of the users names had the first letter of their name in inverse. He knew the bbs had to have a bug and he hated to tell me about it. He also told me he had been 'fixing' the user names himself. If you are an Oasis SysOp and have noticed this, it is not a bug!!! This is how the bbs actually flags a user that he has e-mail waiting. Unlike some other systems that has to look thru all the e-mail each time you log onto the system, Oasis will only search for e-mail if you have e-mail waiting. You can also check for e-mail once you are online by hitting the C command to read old e-mail you may have not deleted for one reason or another. Now for a little tech tip for Avatex modem users. Understand that all software written based on hayes compatibility is written based on the original Hayes 300 Smartmodem. Hayes had internally tied pins 6 and 8 together, something that Avatex did not do. This can cause your modem to go into a loop, sending and receiving data constantly. There is an easy cure for this, on the DB25 pin connector, the plug that goes into the rear of your modem. Unsolder the wire going to pin 6 and move it to pin 8 and resolder it in place. This will now give you 2 wires connected to pin 8, and also the same configuration as the original Hayes 300 Smartmodem. If you have any questions about the Oasis BBS System, call (316)-683-7514 300/1200/2400 and leave a message to the SysOp. Or write to: Leo Newman 3900 N Woodlawn #17 Chisholm Wichita, KS 67220 Your reply will appear in the next issue of ZMAG. Look forward to hearing from you.... _____________________________________ Xx ZMAG SOFTWARE REVIEW _____________________________________ The Print Shop Companion By Charles Brown In this article I will review a utility program for The Print Shop. It is called The Print Shop Companion. This program contains several useful utilities for the main Print Shop program. It also has some extra pictures, fonts, and borders for you to use with The Print Shop. When you first use the Companion disk, you must let your Print Shop disk know that you will be using the features added by The Print Shop Companion. This is accomplished in the set-up routine. The instruction manual just tells you to follow the on-screen prompts to do this set-up. When finished, the new set-up data will be saved to your Print Shop disk and copied to your Companion disk. The Print Shop disk will now recognize the Companion disk. You should put a write protect tab on both your Print Shop and Companion disks. Like The Print Shop, the Companion disk can be used with either the Joystick, the Koala Pad or the Atari Touch Tablet. The Print Shop Companion has several new features. You access them from the main menu, just as in The Print Shop. The first selection is the Graphic Editor. I feel that this editor is much better than the one provided with The Print Shop program. It has many more features, such as: a selection of 17 patterns that you can use to fill in different areas of your picture; different -mirror image- effects (as in Atari Artist); flipping of the graphic both horizontally and vertically; a negative feature, which creates an inverse of the graphic. This editor even automatically draws circles, boxes, and ovals for you. I feel that this editor is very useful, and that you will find it to be very helpful. The next selection from the menu is the Border Editor. You can use it to modify one or more of the 50 borders provided on this disk. You can even load in and modify the borders from the main Print Shop disk, or you can use it to create your very own borders. When this feature is loaded, you will have three different editing boxes. The first box is used to edit the four corners of the border. The second box is used to edit the top and bottom parts of the border, while the third box is used for the sides of the border. This editor uses many of the same features as the graphic editor. With the three editing boxes and all the editing tools, you can really be creative with your borders. The next feature is a Font Editor. ou can use it to modify any of The Print Shop's eight fonts. An additional twelve fonts are provided on the Companion disk as well. You can even create your own. I haven't really tried this one out, so can't comment on its usefulness. I am sure it has the same features as many of the other font editors you've seen. The next feature chosen from the main menu is Tile Magic. This feature is very similar to the kaleidoscopes from the screen magic part of The Print Shop. You can browse through the different patterns that are provided. When you see one that you like, you simply hit a key to freeze it n the screen. Then, you can save the pattern to a data disk, or you can go to the graphic editor to modify it. You can use it to create a whole lot of different things for your creations. The next feature chosen from the main menu is a Creature Maker. In this part you have a choice of different zany creatures to start with. You can change the three parts of a creatures ody. They are the Head, the Middle and the Feet. You can exchange all of these parts at will. Once you have made your own creature, you can save it to disk as a graphic, or you can go to the graphic editor and modify it even more. (My kids love this part of the program! - Ed.) The last selection from the main menu is the Calendar Maker. You can use this mode to create and print out your very own calendars. You can either make a weekly or monthly calendar. You can put graphics on it. You can use different fonts on it for unique effects. A very nice feature is that you can put your own messages in the daily spots on the calendar; you can put in things like birthdays, anniversaries, appointments or anything you want to remind yourself of. This way, it will be already printed when you do the whole calendar. This is nice for people like me who have poor hand writing (or people like me with poor memories! - Ed.). After you have made your calendar, you can print it or save it to disk. It is nice to save it, and then load it back in later to either print or revise it. As you can see, The Print Shop Companion is a very powerful utility for the main Print Shop program. If you really want to create your own Print Shop icons, I feel that the graphic editor on the Companion disk is far superior to the one on the Print Shop disk. If you are serious about using the The Print Shop program, I'm certain that you will find the Companion disk very helpful. _____________________________________ ZMAGAZINE NEW JERSEY JULY 31, 1987 PLEASE CONTRIBUTE YOUR ARTICLES! _____________________________________ ISSUE #64 ISSUE #64 ISSUE #64